Abstract
Acute esophageal necrosis (AEN) or “black esophagus” is a rare condition presented by patients with critical state of health and characterized by a darkened esophagus, usually the distal third, in upper digestive endoscopy. The main clinical manifestation is upper gastrointestinal bleeding and there may be abdominal pain, dysphagia, nausea, vomiting, fever and syncope associated. The diagnosis depends on clinical suspicion and performing endoscopy, the biopsy not being required. In this article we present a case of a patient who had lots of comorbidities and developed AEN during a post-operative period, and discuss the importance of AEN in an increasingly ageing population.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Soussan EB, et al. Acute esophageal necrosis: a 1-year prospective study. Gastrointest Endosc. 2002;56(2):213–7.
Katsoulis SR, et al. Acute esophageal necrosis associated with gastric volvulus. Gastrointest Endosc. 2000;51(5):0610–2.
Goldenberg SP, Wain SL, Marignani P. Acute necrotizing esophagitis. Gastroenterology. 1990;98(2):493–6.
Gurvits GE, et al. Acute esophageal necrosis: a rare syndrome. J Gastroenterol. 2007;42(1):29–38.
Day A, Sayegh M. Acute oesophageal necrosis: a case report and review of the literature. Int J Surg. 2010;8(1):6–14.
Lacy BE, et al. Acute esophageal necrosis: report of two cases and a review of the literature. Gastrointest Endosc. 1999;49(4):527–32.
Kar A, Datta A, Ahmed A. Poor ICU performance is most often due to increasingly ageing population (> 60 years)—is this true? an analysis in Indian scenario. Intensive Care Med Exp. 2015;3(Suppl 1):A533.
Gurvits GE. Black esophagus: acute esophageal necrosis syndrome. World J Gastroenterol. 2010;16(26):3219.
Garas G. et al. Acute oesophageal necrosis syndrome. BMJ Case Rep, 2011.
Raven RW, Dawson I. Malignant melanoma of the oesophagus. Br J Surg. 1964;51(7):551–5.
Sharma SS, et al. Melanosis of the Esophagus: an endoscopic, histochemical, and ultrastructural study. Gastroenterology. 1991;100(1):13–6.
Kimball MW. Pseudomelanosis of the esophagus. Gastrointest Endosc. 1978;24(3):121–2.
Cattan P, et al. Black esophagus associated with herpes esophagitis. Gastrointest Endosc. 1999;49(1):105–7.
Hejna P, Ublova M, Vorisek V. Black esophagus: acute esophageal necrosis in fatal haloperidol intoxication. J Forensic Sci. 2013;58(5):1367–9.
McLaughlin CW, Person TD, Denlinger CE. Management of acute esophageal necrosis syndrome. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2011;141(3):e23–4.
Nations U. World Population Ageing. 2015, United Nations: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division: New York.
Kumar V, Abbas AK, Aster JC, Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease. 9 ed. Robbins Pathology. 2014, Philadephia: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Ravasco P, et al. Nutritional deterioration in cancer: the role of disease and diet. Clin Oncol. 2003;15(8):443–50.
Gurvits GE, et al. Black esophagus: new insights and multicenter international experience in 2014. Dig Dis Sci. 2015;60(2):444–53.
Zacharia GS, Sandesh K, Ramachandran T. Acute esophageal necrosis: an uncommon cause of hematemesis. Oman Med J. 2014;29(4):302–4.
Aaldriks AA, et al. Frailty and malnutrition predictive of mortality risk in older patients with advanced colorectal cancer receiving chemotherapy. J Geriatr Oncol. 2013;4(3):218–26.
Kos M, et al. Association of “Controlling Nutritional Status Index” and “Prognostic Nutritional Index” with intensive care unit survival in elderly patients. Eur Geriatric Med. 2016;7(1):13–7.
Ogawa M et al Poor preoperative nutritional status is an important predictor of the retardation of rehabilitation after cardiac surgery in elderly cardiac patients. Aging Clin Exp Res, 2016.
Leandro-Merhi VA, et al. Clinical and nutritional status of surgical patients with and without malignant diseases: cross-sectional study. Arq Gastroenterol. 2011;48(1):58–61.
Correia MIDT, Rego LO, Nutrição e Cirurgia. in Fundamentos em Clínica Cirúrgica, M.A.G. Rodrigues, M.I.D.T. Correia, and P.R.S. Rocha, Editors. 2005, Coopmed: Belo Horizonte. pp 77–91.
Turner JE. Is immunosenescence influenced by our lifetime “dose” of exercise? Biogerontology. 2016;17(3):581–602.
Ticinesi A et al. Nutrition and inflammation in older individuals: focus on vitamin D, n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Whey Proteins. Nutrients, 2016. 8(4).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest:
Beatriz Deoti Silva Rodrigues, Raniere dos Santos, Magda Maria Profeta da Luz, Flávia Chaves e Silva and Igor Guedes Nogueira Reis declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Human Rights:
All procedures followed have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
Informed Consent:
Informed consent was not necessary, because no identifiable information concerning the patient is included in this article.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rodrigues, B.D.S., dos Santos, R., da Luz, M.M.P. et al. Acute esophageal necrosis. Clin J Gastroenterol 9, 341–344 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-016-0692-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12328-016-0692-1